In the meantime I have played Guild Wars diligently. My character, Claudia Skullburn, a Norn Elementalist, has reached level 80 for weeks now. Time to do the final review for Guild Wars 2.

The difference to other reviews of GW2 is of course my Atlantian perspective: I will compare every now and then Atlantica Online to Guild Wars 2. Now, I know, there are some people who find that not fair. How can I compare a five year old game with a brand new one like GW2? Personally, I follow another school of thought: I live now, I have now to decide which game to play, I have not a lot of free time, and so I choose the best game out there. There is no grace for old games which did not have move along, at least not from me. And this argument could also be turned around: There is an even older MMORPG out there which is by far the most wide-spread one, and there are a lot of GW2 fans who argue that it is not fair to a new game to compare it with an old one which had time to mature. For me it is not a matter of fairness. I invest money and time where I think I get the best value for it. I am a customer, not a judge.

As I explained here I am experiencing a certain grumpiness. This grumpy feeling is not so much targetted at the game itself (and especially not at the community of course) but at Nexon. I find the behavior of this company more and more disgusting.

As I wrote in another article I am starting to get annoyed by Nexon because of their bad, bad service. But there is now a new danger lurking around the corner: a better game. Or not, many games are said to become Atlantica Online’s doom, and then they weren’t. But it is the first time (for me) that I am actually thinking about going over to another game. And this game is: Guild Wars 2. So from August 25th onward I will take a break, and it depends from the quality of GW2, how long this break will be. After all, I still do play mmorpgs for fun and not as a duty :)

You may or may not remember my old guide about the level 120 upgrade quest. It was written in a time of awe, when bosses were bosses, grass was greener, women prettier and the air cleaner than today (at least that thing with the air is true). Now the developers have changed and tweaked the quest thoroughly, making it fairly easy. I wrote this article after I finished the upgrade quest on 2012-07-29 with Claudiana, my staff main, alt. She was in level 120 then, which is not that surprising if you think about it.

This is an article which won’t let you enjoy the game. It is aimed at those who want to storm through the lower levels. That can be useful if it is your second character. Otherwise I recommend to do at least the main quest because the story behind it is interesting enough to bother with it. And while it is a very effective way it will spoil your fun and sense of achievement. You are warned!

This is a collection of questions/problems and answers/solutions. It is not sorted in any way yet and of course far from complete. The last weeks I have jotted down questions newer players asked in my guild/nation – these notes are the main source of this. Over time I may or may not expand this article.

Update 2012-07-25: New sections about graphic resolution, windowed mode and windows who won’t stay where you have them moved to.

Update 2012-07-06: Crafting costs for phoenix powersaw and freezing spear added (you can take them as prices for all weapons of the same tier, they use the same materials). Changed section 7 (finding wandering NPC). Added section 10 (fake “my homes”).